The Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee will host an interfaith panel and information session tonight to help students and parents of minority religions navigate local school systems.

The event at Montgomery Bell Academy’s Ingram Science Building will explain to families how their faith can legally and illegally intersect in local public schools, said event organizer Abbie Wolf, the federation’s head of community relations.

“The goal is to have families and kids to become more in tune of what’s allowed in school, what’s not, and what their rights are,” she said.

Wolf said the concept for the panel came together after a textbook debate in Williamson County concerning a controversial Israeli-Palestinian passage in a history textbook.

She said she thought a discussion with perspectives from the city’s Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities could show similar issues each group deals with and help develop solutions in a reasonable and legal manner.

When these groups work together, she said, their combined influence makes it more likely they can make changes in the community.

'Common issues'

Issues she expects to be addressed range from how to handle overt discrimination or insensitivity to how to react when schools widely recognize holidays or events that some faiths don’t.

“Even though our faiths have their own set of issues, I feel there are enough common issues that unite them,” she said.

The panel will include current and former Metro Schools officials along with Tamara Losel of the Nashville Conflict Resolution Center, Remziya Suleyman of the American Center for Outreach and Judy Saks of the Jewish Federation. The event begins at 7 p.m.

Suleyman is confident the panel will help give families, especially ones new to the country, a better sense of the rules and regulations surrounding religion in the schools. The Metro Nashville school system, she said, is “very accepting” in letting students practice their faith and working with families to do so.

“It’s definitely going to bring together the different communities, but it will also help the children feel very confident about their faith,” Suleyman said.